We did this route in early January, after the rains had begun. While not impossible, this meant that our camping and riding was unpredictably disrupted. A group did the route 2-3 weeks earlier and barely saw a cloud in the sky! We followed Neil and Harriet Pikes fantastic directions in reverse, and merely offer some comments in confirmation of their info. Refer to their directions for water and services. We took 5 days to Olacapato.

6-8km uphill from Socaire the road passes the outflow from the upcoming Lagunas as an fast-flowing irrigation channel and water source if you’ve not picked up any in Socaire. Next water is at the El Laco mining camp.

20km from Socaire – turnoff to Lagunas (is possible to take this road then rejoin the main route just short of the Salar Aguas Calientes

Prominent rock group and more potential camping at low-point between SAG post and Abra Sico

From Aduanas Argentinas there is a Y-junction. The numbering is a bit confusing, but the Ruta 51 is the R. turn and goes directly to Cauchari. The L. goes to within 1km of Catúa is the one we took.

We managed to get not only water, but floor space and internet at the Olacapato Police station. There is an hospedaje in Olacapato (if you have money!).

San Antonio de los Cobres to Belén

The astute will notice that this and the route above don’t totally overlap. We hitched from Olacapato to Salta to get Sarah a new bottom bracket, then bused back as far as San Antonio. What follows are clarifications or observations based on the route already well described by Harriet and Neil Pike at AndesbyBike

Cauchari to Salar de Pocitos: 40km with a R. turn to Salar del Rincon @ 16km (could enable you to head straight to Pocitos from Paso Sico (assuming you take the R. turn at the Y at the Aduanas Argentinas mentioned above). There’s also sheltered camping (without water) in disused Railway buildings at Laguna Seca (21km from Cauchari).

The Colorada roadworkers camp mentioned by Neil and Harriet was occupied overnight when we passed.

The Police control point at the north end of Salar de Hombre Muerto was also occupied when we passed (with water).

We were advised to circumnavigate the Salar (anticlockwise) as the police said that the road directly across was flooded. So follows a detailed description of our route from there to Antofagasta de la Sierra…

11km – track that began at the police point (head along Salar shore rather than following main road) is joined from L. by a track from the Salar shortly after FMC building on R.

There are no services or water on the route apart from at the Hotel Termas Villavicencio.

Pareditas to El Sosneado

Somewhat confusingly, the old RN40 which had been renamed RP101 (and is such on most maps) is now the RN40 again (according to all the road signs). This seems to have happened in the last year or so (Feb. 2012). At all other junctions go straight or follow RN40 signs. There was no other water other than mentioned when we did this route.

0km – Junction RN40 and 142 near south end of Pareditas. Go R. following RN40 signs (St. is now the RP101) then L. after 1km. Frequent houses until 15km with river proximity too.

Ferries forming part of the Carretera Austral are free. As we came onto the CA at Villa Santa Lucia from Futaleufú, we only needed the Puerto Yungay to Rio Bravo one. This runs 3 times daily in high season (to end March), and twice daily at other times.

Villa O’Higgins to El Chaltén

To continue from the southern end of the CA there are 2 broad options – via a ripio road and bicycle/foot only river crossing to Paso Rio Mayer;, and the more frequently used boat-bike-boat route to Candelaria Mancilla, Lago del Desierto and on to El Chaltén. For this the main services is a tour-oriented boat the HieloSur that runs on from Candelaria Mancilla to the O’Higgins Glacier and provides some connections across Lago del Desierto. This is expensive (Ch$ 40,000) and only runs once weekly with sufficient passengers after mid-march (Saturdays). It is also possible to hunt around in Villa O’Higgins for various people who will run a smaller, cheaper boat as long as there are enough takers. Check with the Tourist Info. in the main plaza for leads and the proprietor of Hostal El Mosco. These boats are much more weather dependent. We were asked for Ch$40,000, but managed to bargain the captain down to Ch$35,000.

The route from Candelaria Mancilla to the Argentinian Border Control at the north end of Lago del Desierto is infamous, but depending on your mtb experience and kit can be quite fun. From CM there is 15km of loose-ish dual track road (1st 5km fairly steep) to border (we rode nearly all and took 2 hours). Then it turns to walking track. This is an often enjoyable moderately technical mtb track. There are a few stream crossings aided by adhoc log bridges and a couple of more boggy sections. We rode about 70% of it and took 2 hours.

Lago del Desierto has a ferry (tour boat) that runs 3 times daily Wed to Sun (evening only on Tues). The last boat goes 31st March. Cost is Arg$110 per person, and $20 per bike (others negotiated this down). There is a walking track along the eastern shore as an alternative – quality unknown to us.

The remaining 37km to El Chaltén is good quality ripio with increasing views of Cerro Fitzroy. When we went through there was an unofficial Casa de Ciclistas, with camping on a town block owned by Jesús Torres – ask for “la Casa de Jesús” and bring wine etc.

Lots of info on cycling approaches to the Perito Morreno glacier by bike on the googlegroup “PanAm riders”.

See the blog post for hints about a direct route between El Calafate and Torres del Paine (unlikely to work for most people, but you never know).

El Calafate to Puerto Natales

Also straightforward. Back out from El Calafate, then onto the ripio R40 to Tapi Aike. South for 40km on tarmac until the R. turn across to Chile and Cerro Castillo before heading round through the Torres del Paine NP on ripio.

Cerro Castillo (1st town after Argentina/Chile border into TdP NP) – fenced playground down in main town and Bomberos. Only food shop is last on the R. heading nth into TdP – has good range of staples, but little fresh stuff. Be aware that the Chileans will take any fresh vegetables from you at the border crossing just before CC.

In the park, the park entrance point is 55km after Cerro Castillo, a couple of km after Laguna Amarga and a refugio.

Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas

Ruta 9. Paved. More opportunities for shelter than obvious from the map. We were offered and accepted indoor camping from the Carabineros at Morro Chico (100km from PN) and the servo at Gobernador Phillipe. We also noted some very fine looking Asada (BBQ) shelters at the junction towards the pengüineria 20km or so north of PA that would do nicely for camping.

We stayed at Hospedaje/Hostel Independencia in Punta Arenas (corner of Independencia and España) which is a slightly chaotic hiker/biker oriented hostel that offers camping. If you take a room, there’s also an all you can eat breakfast. Eduardo was very helpful in pointing out places for getting bike boxes, getting to the airport and in our case, offering to buy Sarah’s Mendoza bike for his hire fleet.

[…] for this route came from Tom Walwyn and his Bicycle Nomad site. He has route notes here… https://bicyclenomad.com/route-information/chile/ and posts about his and Sarah’s experience on the route here. Tom and Sarah have been an […]